Shin-ae becomes a church-goer and wants to forgive the murderer. He can unleash commandos, or cyberweapons, or threaten to utilize weapons of mass destruction unless. and wont stop following her around to get a date, even though she shows no interest and is a different type of personality. Shin-ae has walked, as if in a trance, into a church service, Jong-chan following unobtrusively a few paces behind her. Her face is happy, but her eyes are not. A compelling and poignant Korean film about a besieged widow's journey into the far country of forgiveness. He is a figure of much smaller goals and simpler appetites who helps ground Shin-aes traumatic experience. Melodrama in particular was like an alternate universe, not just because tears flowed more freely there, but also because instead of condescending to the miserable among us, the genre seemed to use every device at its disposalharrowing plot twists, invasive close-ups, swelling musicto build a case for their misery. Jong-chan arrives, offering to hold up a mirror for her. Although this is the first big mental shift/breakdown Shin-ae experiences, it won't be the last by a long shot. That's not totally my intent, but I do think Lee meant his film to critique some of the failings of religion. Take, for instance, a moment after Shin-ae claims to have found God. She is seemingly in a state of bliss as a result and decides to visit Juns killer in prison and forgive him. However, when she gets to the prison she finds out god has already beaten her to the punch. Her young son, Jun, is discovered dead in a river after having been kidnapped and held for ransom. To walk away, you gotta leave something behind, or a long story short. Secret Sunshine is a remarkably complex film and this is more of a partial analysis of one element of it. Sin-ae moves with her son Jun to Miryang, the town where her dead husband was born. When Jong-chan takes her brother to the railroad depot, he tells him that he's not Sin-ae's type. Jeon plays this scene as a marathon of histrionic flourishes: breathless heaving and hacking, back-and-forth rocking, pawing at her throat and chest, veins bulging from neck and forehead. Synopsis. "[14] Michael Atkinson of the Village Voice wrote that "the red-eyed Jeon, landing a Best Actress at Cannes in 2007 and unforgettable as well in The Housemaid, goes to hell and back. , is discovered dead in a river after having been kidnapped and held for ransom. In keeping with the rest of Lees hard-won film, these final moments never really suggest victory or catharsis, just the possibility of survival and the first stages of renewal. A woman moves to the town where her dead husband was born. "[15] In 2019, director Hirokazu Kore-eda named it as the best film of the 21st century, praising Lee's "deep insight into human nature". Unfortunately, it doesnt touch the heart as much as it thinks it does, and loses its way by becoming too plodding in its possible romance story and showing how religious exuberance might give joy but could be as dangerous as a drug when you come off its highs. ) Title: Secret Sunshine - Milyang (2007) Directed by: Lee Chang-dong Date of birth: 4 July 1954, Daegu, South Korea Writing credits: Lee Chang-dong, Chong-jun Yi Music: Christian Basso Year: 2007 Country: South Korea Language: Korean Color: Color Runtime: 142 min. Despite warnings from her friends, Shin-ae is optimistic that this visit will give her all the more reason to believe in God. In Wei Young's investigation of Zhong Zheng's murder she searches his manor and finds a secret room, only to become trapped inside with Tuoba Yu. At 12:30 p.m. on November 22, 1963, bullets fired into the open roof of the presidential limousine tore through John F. Kennedy's body. Jong-chan doesn't understand why Shin-ae needs to visit him to forgive him, but nevertheless accompanies her. She says that believing in God feels like falling in love. But her smile is never entirely convincing. She hardly says a word, but instead, her face falls slightly, and she merely looks at the killer. After the death of her husband from a traffic accident, Lee Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon) and her only child Jun move to Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, her husband's hometown, to start life anew. Second, I identify as an atheist. After she visits the prison, Lee seems to suggest that Shin-ae's conversion was really just a way for her to feel like she had power over Do-seop. The films final moments show Shin-ae cutting her own hair in the backyard she once played in with her son, the place where they enacted a game of separation and loss that became all too real. He understands that grieving is intensely personal, not some sort of assembly line where you if you put your emotions together in the right order you can get over you husband dying and your son being murdered. December 21, 2010 | Rating: B+ | Full Review. The initial, if superficial hope of change and cleansing offered by this routine action is undermined by the fact that her young hairdresser turns out to be the daughter of her sons murderer, herself recently released from juvenile detention. We look back at one of Combs most underrated performances bringing the master of the macabre to life. Secret Sunshine Lee Chang-dong Shin-ae is a glass-half-full type, we assume, not one of those people predisposed to sadness, not someone who easily crumbles. We sketch out what goes into an effective Scrooge performance and which actors best conveyed the spirit of Charles Dickens infamous miser. Shin-ae responds with a blank, lifeless stare, and the reaction is surprising, to say the least. After the funeral scene, the rest of Secret Sunshine plays out as one womans descent into purgatory, an arc that places Jeon Do-yeons exposed nerve of a performance in the company of Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence, Isabelle Adjani in Possession, and so many other great roles that flirt with ideas of female hysteria.But what makes Jeons work here so satisfying is the matter-of-fact way she and Lee navigate Shin-aes whiplash moods. Is it done with self-forgetting abandon or as a power play to forestall the moral judgments of onlookers? Read her mostly embarrassing tweets here: Jeon delivers a jaw-dropping performance as a grieving mother. After ineffectively attempting to commit suicide in a final act of abasement, Shin-ae is discharged from hospital and taken home by the ever-faithful Jong. One of the many strengths of Jeons performance, which earned her the best actress prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, is that the core of her character never changes. Her trusted female servant declares Ae Shin shouldn't see this and orders the palanquin to move forward. The point Lee makes is that neither is particularly healthy in the long run. Shin-ae eventually decides that she wants to see the man who murdered Jun in order to forgive him. Less than halfway through Chang-dong Lee's Secret Sunshine, tragedy strikes for single mother Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon). North Korea's unpredictable leader Kim Jong-un has many ways of making war upon his neighbors. This drives. The film also shines a spotlight on an important phenomenon that is transforming Korean society the phenomenal rise of evangelical Christianity. This is where Lee really starts to overtly criticize Christianity. By no means is this an analysis of the entire film. When she comes home one day and cannot find Jun, she melts to the ground and begins to wail in a way that is almost comically childlike. Lee has claimed the influence of filmmakers such as John Cassavetes and Robert Bresson upon his work. Immediately after Jun is kidnapped, Shin-ae is (understandably) overwhelmed and simply does whatever the kidnappers tell her to do. pays him less than the amount required, the boy is killed. On the verge of implosion, the band rages through a performance of their song Circle Sky in a psychedelic, politically trenchant sequence from director Bob Rafelsons debut feature. Yet, to suggest that Jeons expression is ever blank in Secret Sunshine would be a dire misinterpretation. One of Krzysztof Kielowskis closest collaborators, the Polish composer suffuses the quotidian images that appear throughout Blue, White, and Red with deep poetry and sacred meaning. SECRET SUNSHINE Movie - JEON Do-yeon, SONG Kang-ho. They've never experienced suffering and loss like Shin-ae and they seem unable to simply sympathize with her. Grief is never straightforward. A few family members howl in agony at the funeral, but Shin-ae has the faraway, sunken-eyed expression of someone with no tears left to cry, a look her mother-in-law construes as insufficiently grief-stricken. Jeon has given Shin-ae a rebel streak, and time and again she leans into it, that part of the character that says if I must fall apart, I will do so spectacularly. Sunshine and Bullets is a story about massively broken characters. 2:16. Here, read more quotes about the month of June: "March into May to witness that fullness of life in June.". Name: Jeon Do-Yeon Hangul: Birthdate: February 11, 1973 Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea Education: Seoul Institute of the Arts, Graduate School of Korea University Height: 165 cm. 94%. But for all her good intentions, she is also a walking harbinger of death. A similar moment occurs when she hijacks the audio at a religious meeting and plays rebellious music. My guess is a month or two, though no indication is really given. When Shin-Ae tries to purchase some land, Kim recommends a very wealthy and powerful land owner. Dec 22, 2010. At least thats how her in-laws treat her after Jun is kidnapped, held for ransom, and killed. This is another really remarkable scene and the first time I saw it I actually didn't understand what was happening at first. This has the effect of making her relationship with god seem even more shallow. Director Lee Chang-dong could well have cut 30 minutes out of the story, but Jeon's performance is powerful enough to keep Secret Sunshine from drowning in an ocean of tears. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life. JustWatch. She hardly says a word, but instead, her face falls slightly, and she merely looks at the killer. She's looking up at the ceiling (that's a really common motif in this film, people are constantly looking up at the sky or the ceiling and imploring god) and making some labored, painful noises. Their conception of god and Christianity is very basic and uncomplicated. The actor may hate Joe Goldberg, but we still cant get enough of the psychosexy sociopath Badgley brings to life in the stalker-centric rom-dram. They may genuinely want to help Shin-ae, but their faith makes them unable to actually reach out and sympathizing with her in any sort of meaningful way. Shin-ae is sitting down cutting apples with a knife, but the camera is focused on her from the shoulders up. ", "Criterion Blu-ray in August: Pontecorvo, Polanski, Kubrick, Chang-dong, Cocteau, Anderson, Vigo (Updated)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Secret_Sunshine&oldid=1134736974. TV-MA . Jong-chan claims he is only trying to be a Good Samaritan. But the book was written by Coralee June and as much as I hated it, it was a fucking impressive read. [3] For her performance in the film, Jeon Do-yeon won the Prix d'interprtation fminine (Best Actress) at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. [4][5][6] The film also won the award for Best Film at the Asian Film Awards and at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. More from. Details. Inspired by her new faith, she decides that it is time to prove to God and to the world that she is an Olympic class believer. Sin-ae moves with her son Jun to Miryang, the town where her dead husband was born. Tears may be more welcomedmore valuedon the big screen than they are in real life, but to be satisfying they also have to seem in some sense hard-won. She converted to Christianity entirely for selfish reasons so that she could force her son's murderer to grovel for her forgiveness. It is in such moments containing the emotional expressivity of the former and the spiritual questioning of the latter that one can note such influences. It is this sense of proximity and distance, the subjective and the objective, belonging and separation, exterior and interior that will profoundly characterise the rest of the film. Though to call Secret Sunshine a genre film would be a huge mistake. Eugene Choi (Lee Byung Hun) pulls the list of rebels The scene is not between Shin-ae and the man. At home one day, Shin-ae hears noises in her bathroom and opens the door, crying out Jun's name, but the bathroom user is a little boy from Jun's daycare. [16] In 2020, The Guardian ranked it number 7 among the classics of modern South Korean Cinema. Robert Martin Roth The FBI Wall of Honor. The two of them have a complex relationship that I myself haven't quite figured out yet. Shin-aes failure to ingratiate herself to others is contrasted with the figure of Jong (the wonderful Song Kang-ho), a mechanic who becomes infatuated with Shin-ae. We can hardly see her through the crack in the window, but, like when she convinces the man to cheat on his wife with her, and when she plays the music, we know exactly what shes thinking and feeling. 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